Scott Who?
You all remember Scott Spencer, the guy who claimed he was running for Congress in 2010, but after all his bluster and hubbub about rockets and trains, didn’t even file for the Democratic primary? Apparently he’s now running for Mayor of Wilmington.
While he passed himself off as a progressive, his true colors came out during numerous appearances on the Fatman’s show down here in Sussex, where he espoused his anti-abortion rights and anti-labor stands.
You gotta love someone who embellishes his record on the web. According to his website, Spencer was responsible for “bringing the Amber Alert System to Delaware, … and jumpstarting the electric car industry in Delaware.” And Newt Gingrich is a historian.
Today is issued a press release demanding requesting that Gov. Markell form “an Interagency Homicide Task Force, within 30 days, to provide the expertise and resources of the State Police and New Castle County Homicide Units to assist Wilmington Police in city murder investigations.” Doesn’t say how he’s going to pay for this or who will have operational command. And he cc’d the presser to Paul Clark and Mayor Baker. Talk about amateur. Just a bunch of empty rhetoric from a wannabe pol.
And the pictures he uses on his website are a bit dated. When I saw him at the JJ Dinner in November, his hair was a lot greyer. Well, maybe he’s using Grecian Formula.
Scott, your 15 minutes of fame were over in the summer of 2010. Time to get a real job. I do have a question though – are you trying to become another Mike Miller by running for anything and everything (and losing)?
Tags: Scott Spencer, Wilmington
Hmm. Why do I keep flashing back to March 2011? Oh, wait … it’s because of this interagency initiative focusing on violent crime in Wilmington that *already exists*! And by definition, homicides are violent crimes, aren’t they?
“Operation: Pressure Point” Coordinates Efforts to Crack Down on Violent Crime Statewide: Reducing Crime in Wilmington is the First Focus of this Statewide Prevention Effort
Wilmington, DE – A statewide effort to tackle violent crime called “Operation: Pressure Point” begins today with an initial focus on reducing gun violence in the City of Wilmington. The initiative’s two concurrent phases – enforcement and investigation – each involve greater coordination between state, federal and local resources to maximize the potential impact on crime reduction.
The City was selected as the starting point for the effort after the Governor received requests from Wilmington community leaders, elected officials and the state’s Black Caucus for state police resources to be dedicated to the City.
http://governor.delaware.gov/news/2011/1103march/20110329-pressure_point.shtml
Every party has its Protack.
MW – our Protack is/was Mike Miller. Guess Spencer is now vying for the title.
Anon – thanks for that link.
Spencer – give it up. You’re not only claiming responsibility for things you had little or nothing to do with, but now you’re cribbing policy statements from the Governor.
This is the letter that Spenser sent to the Governor (and cced Mayor Baker and NCCo Exec Clark on):
And the letter basically made up his press release.
I think that what Spenser is advocating for here is a homicide-specific interagency task force. The one currently in place is more focused on genuine crime reduction in some parts of the city.
The City of Wilmington does not have a Homicide unit. Not sure why, but there have been people calling for one for some time now. The real mystery is how the City hasn’t made an effort to organize one in light of the amazing amount of resources that the WPD has pretty adroitly gotten from City taxpayers, from the state and from the Feds. It isn’t as though they don’t have plenty of sworn officers to create a unit.
Time to check on the WPD’s homicide clearance rate.
Yes I know the letter was in the press release. That is how I got the letter. And I suspect that he did send the letter to the Governor, et al while sending the press release to tell people what he did.
C’mon, Cass. You know as well as I do that Spencer is a poseur.
You know, MJ, what I’m talking about here is the content of his letter. What I do know is that I was specifically unnerved by his anti-abortion stance while representing himself as a progressive during the last House race. I *don’t* know about the rest of his claims.
So I’m talking about the bits here that I know about and hope that you are doing the same.
I am interested in more info on his anti-labor stand.
His anti-labor spiel went hand-in-hand with his anti-abortion stance when he was on the Fatman’s show. I remember hearing him twice – both times calling for a ban on abortion and scaling back the rights of workers to join unions. I’m sure if you speak to anyone at DEDO or Jack’s office, they’ll tell you that Spencer had nothing to do with Fisker coming to Delaware.
I don’t know firsthand about the murder rate in Wilmington (I know of only 2 in the last 6 years down here in Rehoboth), but comparing Spencer’s letter to the info from anon looks like Spencer is piggybacking on something that already has been in effect. Makes for a good sound bite, but it’s only words.
MJ – you can have your opinions but please keep DL readers informed with correct facts:
– as a Democratic I have always fought to give a voice to the voiceless in all civil rights issues from the beginning of life to equality issues and opposing the death penalty
– I’ve been active with APRI, CBTU and transit unions on many labor issues
– regarding the Amber Alert legislation and the electric car initiative I can be contacted through my website http://www.spencerforthepeople.com for info on my work with several state legislators on these issues
– regarding the Interagency Homicide Task Force the costs, command and control will require redeployment of existing resources until a decision is made to establish it as a unit or create a WPD Homicide Unit. The Interagency Homicide Task Force is not the same as the crime interagency operation which I believe was a temporary operation.
Thanks for caring about my hair but I wouldn’t use the stuff so please don’t distract DL readers with inaccurate fluff. But you are right that it really doesn’t matter about Scott Who. It’s more important to focus on the issues and solutions that are critical to making a great city better. I will try my best in this campaign for Mayor and I hope the Interagency Homicide Task Force initiative will help save lives this year.
I have never heard him speak about unions. Transportation? Yes. Unions? No. Is there tape on this?
Scott – is this “campaign” another one of your trial balloons which will result in you’re not actually filing for Mayor, but you’ll gladly accept campaign contributions? Sounds a bit O’Donnellish to me.
And don’t go passing yourself off as a progressive, as you did when you first met me at the Sussex Jamboree, and then appear on WGMD and espouse anti-abortion rights and anti-union stands, just to pander to the Fatman’s audience. It doesn’t reflect well on you.
And using touched up pictures or pictures that are years old on a website is as bad as KWS doing it. Oh wait, she does do that.
Pandora – don’t know if WGMD kept anything, but I remember the shows well (I listen to the Fatman so you don’t have to).
“voice to the voiceless in all civil rights issues from the beginning of life to equality issues” = anti-abortion rights.
Goodbye, Scott.
@scott – really civil rights issues?? hmmmm
that would be my very specific baliwick within the City of Wilmington and Statewide –
so what have you done specificially to further City compliance with the Civil rights act of 1964 title VI? within city departments? what is your reaction to the ODJ letter to the City of wilmington agency mentioned in it and audited by the DOJ? HOw do you propose they move forward with said required compliance?
How does this fit with the cost of a homicide task force – how do both get funded and paid for?
or title VII?? how do see this complied with??
these are not fluffy questions – these are real issues – real problems and if you want to run – and you want votes – you need to have answers
whoops I am dyslexic – DOJ is what I meant – sorry for any confustion
Two questions for Scott:
Do you support a woman’s right to choose?
Do you support the rights of unions to collectively bargain on behalf of its members?
MJ’s article claims that you do not, and that you stated that you do not on a Sussex radio show. I don’t know whether you do or not.
I’d like to know.
Thank you for your timely response.
“The Interagency Homicide Task Force is not the same as the crime interagency operation which I believe was a temporary operation.”
Since you’re running for mayor, shouldn’t you know if it’s a temporary operation or not?
Here’s another question for Scott – are you going to do a whistlestop announcement on a train like you were going to do in 2010 and also visit what you called the 4th county of Delaware – Blogger County? Maybe launch a rocket?
Voters want real answers to issues, not gimmicks.
Remembering Scott’s advocacy of privatization of Amtrak [skimming of cream of intercity service] during W’s first term:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/08/news/mn-26960
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-108shrg67425/html/CHRG-108shrg67425.htm
Good work, John.
Thanks for the DL comments and questions. I’d be interested to answer these and other questions in person if anyone is interested to send a request to info@spencerforthepeople.com For the meantime here are a few responses:
Aoine: Civil rights compliance is an ongoing requirement and the issues facing the City in the Consent Decree involving the violation of the civil rights of Officer Akil is something I have not reviewed recently. I will need to find out if the City of Wilmington has been in compliance with the reporting requirements of the DOJ consent decree. My concern is that the erosion of civil rights is rarely blatant anymore but usually manifested in discrimination by neglect – they just fail to do what they are supposed to do until someone confronts the issue. Between now and my formal campaign launch March 20th I am interested to listen and learn more about the issues to lead on so volunteers, issues and ideas are welcome!
El Somnambulo: I’m a Pro-Life Democrat who expects Roe vs. Wade to be the law of the land for the rest of our lives so the real fight is to get Republicans to vote for more funds for the programs and services needed to support women who choose to have a baby. I support the rights of collective bargaining by unions.
John Manifold – The Amtrak proposal was a joint venture with Amtrak that did not cut a single route and would have maintained a union operation, expanded service with more union workers and provided all workers with equity and performance bonuses. You’ll find the real deal on Page 151 with the congressional testimony of the venture’s Chair Paul Reistrup: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house/pdf/109hrg/25911.pdf
and our response to Questions for the Record including union concerns on Page 165
No, Scott, the real fight is to keep people like you, who don’t support a women’s right to make her own choices about her health, out of office.
Buh-bye.
“C’mon, Cass. You know as well as I do that Spencer is a poseur.”
Name-calling is about the last place you ought to be going, MJ.
No name-calling, Geez. Just pointing out a fact. Still waiting to hear how he personally was responsible for jump-starting the electric car industry in the state.
Ask John Kowalko about it. Spencer wasn’t solely “responsible,” but he was involved.
Have you asked about his position on Israel?
@Scott – you obviously dont know what Im talking about
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI specifically talks about limited english proficiency compliance – so you are not aware of the audit done on a City agency by the DOJ and the findings.
I specifically referred to title VI and you missed it and made an assumption – not good – does not show due diligence.
might need to brush up on that – they failed, and got caught.
read http://www.LEP.gov
Geezer, what does that have to do with being Mayor of Wilmington?
From now on, every candidate from dog catcher up gets asked that question, especially now that US troops are in Israel preparing for war with Iran.
Anonymous – you were asked yesterday to post a link to support your asinine comments. You provided none. So you’re talking out of your arse.